Dirty Politics: When Voiceovers Go Too Far

As I was drinking my coffee this morning (a “double double” made at the office with Tim Hortons coffee, complete with hazelnut cream), I found an article that made my skin crawl. Let me elaborate. The article, printed today on TBO.com, was about the dark side of political campaigns, using the Internet as a principal tool to discredit politicians and candidates, ranging from the local grassroots elections right up to the national presidential election of 2004 in the United States of America.
Several different tools of online political attack were mentioned:

Fake videos being circulated around the ‘net featuring presidential candidates

Fraudulent websites, again, used as tools in smear campaigns

Stage actors and voice actors impersonating political candidates

It’s sabotage, plain and simple. Just because it’s online doesn’t mean that the content doesn’t matter or have a profound influence on people. Just because it is produced anonymously doesn’t clear someone of their decisions and actions, either.
This brings us to a crossroads. As the voice-over marketplace, we choose which projects we approve or deny according to a code of ethics based upon Christian principles. Therefore, we do not approve jobs that are unethical, immoral, racist, prejudiced, malicious, adult, or those that promote slanderous content.

We’ve denied political smear campaigns in the past and other projects which never saw the light of day or your email boxes. What it really comes down to is the voice talent and actors who accept these jobs, whether from direct contacts at their own websites or through agencies. Each voice actor has the right to say “No” to malicious work, ensuring that they are not involved in something that could cause negative national or even global consequences. Even though it may seem like this is out of your hands, it isn’t. You have the power and the right to say No. By refusing this sort of voice-over work, you are demonstrating true patriotism and brotherly love. Most importantly, you are remaining true to yourself.
Sincerely,
Stephanie

Stephanie Ciccarelli is the Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Voices.com. Classically trained in voice, piano, violin and musical theatre, as well as a respected mentor and industry speaker, Stephanie graduated with a Bachelor of Musical Arts from the Don Wright Faculty of Music at the University of Western Ontario. Possessing a great love for imparting knowledge and empowering others, her blog serves an audience that wants to achieve excellence in storytelling through the power of the human voice. Stephanie was recently listed on the PROFIT Magazine W100 list three times (2013, 2015 and 2016), a ranking of Canada's top female entrepreneurs, and is the author of Voice Acting for Dummies®.